Metastatic heterogeneity of the consensus molecular subtypes of colorectal cancer

Gene expression-based subtypes of colorectal cancer have clinical relevance, but the representativeness of primary tumors and the consensus molecular subtypes (CMS) for metastatic cancers is not well known. We investigated the metastatic heterogeneity of CMS. The best approach to subtype translation was delineated by comparisons of transcriptomic profiles from 317 primary tumors and 295 liver metastases, including multi-metastatic samples from 45 patients and 14 primary-metastasis sets. Associations were validated in an external data set (n = 618). Projection of metastases onto principal components of primary tumors showed that metastases were depleted of CMS1-immune/CMS3-metabolic signals, enriched for CMS4-mesenchymal/stromal signals, and heavily influenced by the microenvironment. The tailored CMS classifier (available in an updated version of the R package CMScaller) therefore implemented an approach to regress out the liver tissue background. The majority of classified metastases were either CMS2 or CMS4. Nonetheless, subtype switching and inter-metastatic CMS heterogeneity were frequent and increased with sampling intensity. Poor-prognostic value of CMS1/3 metastases was consistent in the context of intra-patient tumor heterogeneity.

Automated summary

Gene expression-based subtypes of colorectal cancer have clinical significance, but the representativeness of primary tumors and consensus molecular subtypes (CMS) for metastatic cancers remains unclear. Metastases exhibit decreased CMS1/CMS3 signals and increased CMS4 signals, influenced by the microenvironment. The majority of classified metastases are CMS2 or CMS4, with subtype switching and inter-metastatic CMS heterogeneity being common.